Task 2:Research into Existing Products

A horror is a genre of film that aims to put fear into its viewer, the plots often include death and supernatural goings on to terror the viewer and are more than likely to include a villain. More recent horror films include subjects of mental illness and physcopathic characters such as Physco and Ted Bundy, they are set in places that have been built up as traditional horror settings like woodlands or hospital wards. Earlier horror films leant more towards fictional characters like Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr.Jeklll and Mr. Hyde.

Sub Genres
Comedy horrors came about in 1923 when director Frank Tuttle released Puritan Passions. it was the first of its kind and was followed by a string of different films years later, the more famous being shaun of the dead (2004) and the Scary Movie series (2000 onwards). They generally immitate popular scenes from different movies and divide the film up with comedy scenes and horror scenes, a good example is an early production Dr. Pycle and Mr. Pryde, a spin off from the famous book and film Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.
Zombie films
Zombie are fictional creatures that come back from the dead, known as the living dead. the main category they fall into is horror but of recent there have been more and more zombie sub genres like zopmbie comedys or zombie apopaclypse, the films often include an infectious disease that anyone comes into contact with becomes a zombie, generally there is a group that manages to stay clear of the disease and the film follows there survival, they begin by attempting to contact the authorities and fail soon realising they are on there own. zombies are usually slow and unintelligent which was first made popular by George A Romero in his film Night of The Living Dead. He is seen as the man who took the zombie film to a new height and is nicknamed the godfather of zombie films, all zombie films today were based on the work of Geroge's interpretaion of zombies. The films are often set in grave yards or towns that are abandoned or even large buildings with high security systems.
Cannabalism
Cannabalism films were first made popular by Italian film directors in the 1970's to 1980's, the first major one being Umberto Lenzi's The Man From the Deep River, this was the imspiration for other filmmakers to creat cannabal films with the genre reaching its peak between 1977 and 1981. The most influential between this period would of been Ruggero Deadato's Cannibal Holocaust in 1980. Later horror films have included hannibal tribes, a notable example being the hills have eyes. A recent popular cannibalism film is Hannibal which was adapted from the novel.
it is the follow up to the first film and book the silence of the lambs and was followed by Red Dragon.

When watching a horror film you seem to know when something bad is going to happen, this is done through the use of different devices such as camera angles and sounds that build up the tension. Clever shots like tracking shots or panning shots and plot devices like stalkers and isolation all make a good horror, pair these with violent imagery and screams of terror and the film would instantly feel like a scary movie.

Traditionally horror films are set in areas which are isolated and cut off from civilization, places like woods or houses that are "in the middle of nowhere". This makes the viewer believe that the victim has no-one to help them and are almost bound to be doomed, this is a great tool used by filmakers to build up tension and suspense in the film. The scenes are generally set at night with minamal diagetic sounds which adds to the realisation that nobody is around to help them. The surroundings of the main settings are usually foggy meaning that the victim can't see long distances, with this we think that anything can jump out at anytime. Even if someone isnt going to jump out it still puts you as a viewer on the edge of your seat with the impression they will.

The majority of horror films try to use sound to add to the affect of putting fear into their viewers, non-diagetic sounds will be played into a scene to heighten the tension and even reflect on the atmosphere of scene. For example if a character is happy, upbeat music will be played, or if a character is gradually becoming more angry, the music will do the same.